Business Insider talked to Lisa Lapin,
associate VP of university communications and the woman who
oversaw the update, and it looks like the reason for the change
was very Stanford-appropriate.

It turns out that the university — which is in the heart of
Silicon Valley and has produced tech giants including the
founders of Google, Yahoo, and Hewlett-Packard — was using a logo
that just didn't work in the digital world.

"The other mark is very pretty and academic and classic, but it
was designed specifically for print and stationery," Lapin
said."The world has changed in the last 10 years."

Lapin explained that the previous font "didn't work digitally.
It's too thin and fine. People were struggling with the mark
online, and we were struggling even further when we were making
mobile sites — It doesn't translate to an iPhone screen."

The previous logo also didn't translate well to signatures (like
for the school of Engineering) and clothing, so the university
primarily went with block letters that merely resembled the
official font.